Attorney Ben Crump held a press conference on Tuesday morning to announce a new lawsuit against the medical company Johnson & Johnson, for targeting their knowingly-lethal product to Black women. The lawsuit was filed by the Black women’s advocacy group, National Council of Negro Women.
Crump begged Johnson & Johnson to "do the right thing to prevent these deaths, do the right thing to make these women whole," followed by emotional testimonies from victims and relatives of the victims of the cancer-causing Johnson & Johnson products. One relative whose grandmother had passed away from ovarian cancer spoke about how her grandmother was a loyal customer who passed down the tradition of using Johnson & Johnson products.
Whether J&J is willing to take responsibility on their own or not, Crump is going to be taking the issue to court. The lawsuit obtained by TMZ is loaded with evidence from studies over the decades that prove, time and time again, that talcum and talcum-like particles were cancer-causing, and that the company used strategic marketing to sell to the Black female market specifically, despite this knowledge.
The lawsuit includes examples of such targeting, including allegedly considering Aretha Franklin or Patti LaBelle to become J&J spokeswomen along with "stopping in at churches and salons in predominantly Black communities… and handing out free baby powder samples."
Crump’s suit seeks justice for the women and their families who were affected by this alleged targeting. In the suit, he asks Johnson & Johnson to publicly take responsibility and develop a plan to track who has been affected by their products and reimburse them for the medical needs they developed as a result of frequent use.
Johnson & Johnson responded by saying all accusations are false, the company would not target a specific group as Crump suggests, and their products do not cause cancer.
The idea that our company would purposefully and systematically target a community with bad intentions is unreasonable and absurd,” the company said. "Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, and our campaigns are multicultural and inclusive. We firmly stand behind the safety of our product and the ways in which we communicate with our customers," the company stated.
We will keep you updated as the story develops.